Urine metallomics signature as an indicator of pancreatic cancer

• Published in: Metallomics Vol. 12; no. 5; pp. 752 - 757
• Main Authors: Schilling, Kathrin, Larner, Fiona, Saad, Amina, Roberts, Rhiannon, Kocher, Hemant M, Blyuss, Oleg, Halliday, Alex N, Crnogorac-Jurcevic, Tatjana
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Royal Society of Chemistry 27-05-2020
• Subjects: Adenocarcinoma; Biomarkers; Calcium; Calcium (urinary); Cancer; Heavy metals; Isotope composition; Magnesium; Metal concentrations; Pancreatic cancer; Urine; Zinc
• ISSN: 1756-5901; 1756-591X
• DOI: 10.1039/d0mt00061b

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the deadliest types of cancer. Its high mortality rate is attributed largely to the difficulty of early diagnosis. Analysis of urine is an excellent non-invasive approach to trace changes in biochemical reactions due to cancer development. Here we show remarkable differences in concentration of several essential metals: significantly lower levels of urinary calcium and magnesium and increased levels of copper and zinc in PDAC when compared to healthy controls, and demonstrate that a combined analysis of these essential metals are accurate indicators (sensitivity = 99.5%) for metal dyshomeostasis in PDAC. In addition, natural stable zinc isotope composition (
δ
66/64
Zn) in urine reveals the preferential excretion of isotopically light zinc in PDAC (
δ
66/64
Zn
median
= −0.15‰) compared to healthy controls (
δ
66/64
Zn
median
= +0.02‰), likely supporting the dysregulation of metalloproteins. These findings demonstrate for the first time that metallomics is a promising approach for discovery of biomarkers for detection of patients with PDAC, completely non-invasively, using urine samples.
Urine metallomics as potential diagnostic tool for PDAC, one of the deadliest types of cancer.